My observations:
The companyThe New Swindon Company is a 'private' company. It was created as a partnership of Swindon Borough Council, English Partnerships (a quango owning redundant public sector land) and the South West Regional Development Company, but the majority of its board are representatives from local industry. (In my view, that makes it a quango not a private company. If the money comes from government - whether directly or indirectly - the independence of the board is irrelevant.)
Areas currently with hoardings around them, particularly in the Union Square DevelopmentThe New Swindon Company is in discussion with Swindon Borough Council over some areas, where they feel they can guarantee them 3 years before development takes place. Proposal is to use these areas as a mini adventure park for children.
Hoilday Inn has submitted planning application to use its ground floor as conference facilities. (This was presented as a good sign, but looks to me more like an indication that the retail market has collapsed and its the only use they can find for the area.)
In the property market, the housing market has collapsed, and retail and office space markets have also suffered, but the hotel market is still booming. (Presumably this will also collapse later, as the recession bites, but there was no hint that this has occurred to the New Swindon Company or the developers.)
The health centre is to be relocated to the site of the Police Station, as is the multi-storey car-park next to the bus station.
College siteThe delays here have been down to potential occupiers wanting heavy discounts (e.g. rent-free whilst they fit-out their shops). The Engineers building (the red-brick one on Victoria Road) is to be occupied by a supermarket on the ground floor. This is not Waitrose (there were discussions with them, but it did not meet their criteria). The upper floors will be 'loft apartments'
The planning application for this site has been revised. Owing to the collapse in the market for
flats apartments, the tower is to be reduced. (I wasn't sure from what was said whether the height of the tower is to be reduced, or whether the tower has been completely removed from the planning application.)
Issues around opening up the residential streets behind the college are being looked at, but this is currently viewed as a good thing to do in town planning. (that is, opening up existing streets is viewed as better then redeveloping the street plan).
The tactics of planning applications were described. Despite the effect of business rates now being charged on vacant buildings (as discussed elsewhere on this forum, and used by the
blue nest for political ammunition) and the £6k per month in security fees, the developers do not wish to demolish the old college building until they have planning permission because, if they demolished it earlier, there might be objections to their proposals because the view (of Swindon over the cleared site) would be spoilt. By leaving the building up, the view is permanently obscured so that cannot be a grounds for objection.
Flemming WayThe buildings in the block occupied by Debenhams are owned by Resolution Asset Management, who have grand plans for the area, but these are on hold owing to the current financial crisis.
Regents PlaceFor Regents Place development to go ahead will require about 50% of the units to be pre-let, owing to the scale of the investment. Union Square is an easier development as it is phased, so lower pre-let percentages are necessary.
Regents Place will include 'boutique' shops, not just the large retailers (though I don't think this means a space for some of the current small retailers in Havelock Street and Morley Street, as it will be out of their price range).
ParkingThe amount of parking will remain unchanged (roughly), but some parking will be relocated.
EngagementThe New Swindon Company are willing to attend local community meetings, and they highlighted that they have attended meetings in Boradgreen.
There is to be a mini-exhibition in the Brunel Centre in February of proposed groundworks.
The New Swindon Company will be producing a newsletter which they will be emailing out.
They accepted, with caveats, the suggestion of putting a display of what is planned in the vacant shops that they own at the top of Regent Street.
They accepted that they had not engaged much with developers working on sites not in their control or outside their area (e.g. the Locarno, development of which has stopped following the collapse of Bach Homes), but are now doing so.
Railway WorksHaving put up a few steel frames, Thomas Homes have stopped work on their development between STEAM and the NMRC, owing to the collapse in the housing market. The New Swindon Company is concerned about this as Thomas Homes are a relatively strong company, and they are in discussions with them.
Cultural QuarterThe area from Regents Circus down Princess Street is designated as a cultural quarter. Plans for this are now very long term, owing to the financial crisis. There is a clear wish by the New Swindon Company to improve the ambiance of 'curry corner'. They would like there to be a new theatre, though the appropriate size for that has yet to be determined. Having a town centre university would help these plans, as university would be a shared user of some of the facilities.
Top end of Regent StreetThe New Swindon Company is fitting new shop fronts to the shops that they own at the top of Regents Street, to improve the ambiance, and also so that they are more attractive to potential occupants once the economic conditions improve.
Wharf GreenThe market that currently takes place in Canal Place will move to Wharf Green, in part because of improvement works in Canal Place making it unusable. The New Swindon Company expressed frustration at people lacking patience with Wharf Green and expecting it to instantaneously become a hive of activity, when this will take time. (Which suggests to me that the New Swindon Company are victims of their own hype.)
The CanalThey noted that the leader of the council and the Canal Trust are very enthusiastic about this, and that the inspector's report on the Central Area Action Plan had endorsed the canal proposals, with some caveats (Having looked at her report, the caveats are quite minor, relating to monitoring and targets.) They described it as a nice-to-have but seemed devoid of enthusiasm for it themselves.
TimescalesThey pointed out that developments in other towns have taken just as long. For example, planning for Cabot Circus started in 1992. Also the planning process is very slow. If their plans require a street to be closed, they can only apply for street closure after they have got planning permission, and consideration of the street closure application takes about a year. They had asked the Government Office for the South West if they could apply for street closure before planning consent is obtained and were told 'no'.
General impression was that things would be very slow, with a little development starting next year, a little more in 2010 and all other plans dependent on when the economy recovers.
WebsiteThey agreed with suggestions from the floor to include some of the explanations they had given this evening (e.g. about timescales and comparisons with other developments) on their website, and also to include a glossary to explain some of the planning jargon.
General ImpressionsLike CoOT, I got the impression that the New Swindon Company are an organisation with responsibility but with little power. Their role is to 'master plan' and to promote the development of Swindon to potential developers, but they are very much restrained by what Swindon Borough Council and the development companies choose to do. Several people at the forum suggested that any future meetings needed to have representatives from the developers there too. That seems to be where the real power lies. Having said that, I feel that my 3/4 hour at the meeting was time well spent.
I too am of the view that I'll believe the development when it happens and not before. The demolition of the old college building has been predicted too many times for any more such predictions to believed in the current economic climate.
For info there was about 15 members of the public there and the added bonus that the lovely Kirsty from Swindonweb was there filming so look out on swindon web tommorrow
I'm hoping I was out-of-sight to the left of Swindonweb's camera position, but if not I suspect you'll be able to guess which one was me.
